State says 30 Benghazi emails not so new

In a filing in a federal court on Wednesday, the State Department said thirty emails dealing with the Benghazi attacks that were uncovered by the FBI during its investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email server are mainly copies of emails that have already been made public.

“State has determined that there is one responsive record that is not a duplicate of the documents provided by former Secretary Clinton,” read a submission from State Department lawyers, in a lawsuit brought by the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch.

The Associated Press reported the one missing email that had not been turned over by Clinton originally – was a note of congratulations from the U.S. Ambassador to Brazil on Clinton’s testimony about the attack before a Senate panel.

It had been sent to a top aide of Clinton, and then forwarded by various people to her – at the top of the email chain, Clinton had responded with the now familiar “pls print.”

It wasn’t clear when the other emails would be made public by the State Department, and Judicial Watch also is making clear it wants to see all thirty of the emails, no matter what the explanation is of the State Department.

Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said on Twitter that it showed nothing new.

Only one email that isn't a duplicate of what was already turned over – and it is a letter of congratulationshttps://t.co/R8jeDWinj8

The legal fight over these emails regarding Benghazi is part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by Judicial Watch; the judge in that case ordered the release of newly discovered emails by the FBI starting on September 30.

Meanwhile, in a separate legal filing in another email case brought by Larry Kawa, an orthodontist in Florida, the State Department said it found nothing in the FBI emails related to Benghazi.

As for the reaction from Judicial Watch, it took the watchdog group a number of hours to issue a statement about the Clinton emails, as the group took a hard line against the former Secretary of State.

“These new Benghazi-Clinton emails prove that Hillary or her lawyers deleted material which proved to be responsive to federal court orders and congressional subpoenas,” said Tom Fitton, the head of Judicial Watch.